1872.] 'BEGINNING OF LIFE.' 347 



ly I think owing to the deductive cast of much of his reason- 

 ing; and I know not why, but I never feel convinced by de- 

 duction, even in the case of H. Spencer's writings. If Dr. 

 Bastian's book had been turned upside down, and he had 

 begun with the various cases of Heterogenesis, and then gone 

 on to organic, and afterwards to saline solutions, and had 

 then given his general arguments, I should have been, I be- 

 lieve, much more influenced. I suspect, however, that my 

 chief difficulty is the effect of old convictions being stereo- 

 typed on my brain. I must have more evidence that germs, 

 or the minutest fragments of the lowest forms, are always 

 killed by 212 of Fahr. Perhaps the mere reiteration of the 

 statements given by Dr. Bastian [of] other men, whose judg- 

 ment I respect, and who have worked long on the lower or- 

 ganisms, would suffice to convince me. Here is a fine con- 

 fession of intellectual weakness; but what an inexplicable 

 frame of mind is that of belief ! 



As for Rotifers and Tardigrades being spontaneously gen- 

 erated, my mind can no more digest such statements, whether 

 true or false, than my stomach can digest a lump of lead. 

 Dr. Bastian is always comparing Archebiosis, as well as 

 growth, to crystallisation ; but, on this view, a Rotifer or 

 Tardigrade is adapted to its humble conditions of life by a 

 happy accident, and this I cannot believe. . . . He must 

 have worked with very impure materials in some cases, as 

 plenty of organisms appeared in a saline solution not con- 

 taining an atom of nitrogen. 



I wholly disagree with Dr. Bastian about many points in 

 his latter chapters. Thus the frequency of generalised forms 

 in the older strata seems to me clearly to indicate the com- 

 mon descent with divergence of more recent forms. Not- 

 withstanding all his sneers, I do not strike my colours as yet 

 about Pangenesis. I should like to live to see Archebiosis 

 proved true, for it would be a discovery of transcendent im- 

 portance ; or, if false, I should like to see it disproved, and 

 the facts otherwise explained ; but I shall not live to see all 

 this. If ever proved, Dr. Bastian will have taken a promi- 



